In recent years, a variety of applications (programs) have been developed in order, for example, to provide a game that can be played on a communication terminal (mobile terminal) operated by a user.
In general, such applications can be roughly divided into native applications and web applications.
Native applications are downloaded onto a communication terminal, installed on the communication terminal, and used. Native applications depend on the OS of the communication terminal, such as an iPhone (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark) device, or other smart phone. For example, a server transmits native applications such as an iPhone application written in Objective-C and an Android application written in Java (registered trademark) to communication terminals according to the platform.
While native applications can run faster than web applications, two versions of native applications need to be developed: one in the Objective-C programming language for iPhones, and one in the Java programming language for Android devices. Furthermore, native applications need to be installed on the communication terminal each time they are updated.
Web applications, on the other hand, operate on a web server and are used in a web browser on the terminal. Such web applications can be cross-developed for both platforms based on a language such as Hyper Text Markup Language 5 (HTML5), Javascript (registered trademark), Cascading Style Sheets 3 (CSS3), or the like. Furthermore, since web applications do not depend on the OS of the terminal, they can be developed with relative ease. Web applications, however, operate slower than native applications.
Therefore, in recent years, an application that combines a native application and a web application (hybrid application) has gained attention. Such a hybrid application can display web content within a native application. This is implemented by using a mechanism to embed a function similar to a simplified browser within the native application. This mechanism is referred to as UIWebView on iOS (registered trademark) and as WebView on Android.
An area displayed by the native application and an area displayed by the web application (UIWebView or WebView) are included in the display screen of the communication terminal on which such a hybrid application is launched.